21 Jan Dramatic Rise in Benzodiazepine/ Z-Drugs and Opioid Co-Use
Benzodiazepine and opioid co-use increased by about 250% and benzodiazepine and Z-drug use increased by about 850%....
opioids Tag
03 Jan Urine Tests Useful in Primary Care Monitoring of Opioid and Cocaine Use
MedicalResearch.com Interview with: [caption id="attachment_46771" align="alignleft" width="184"] Dr. Bagley[/caption]
Sarah M. Bagley MD, MSc
Assistant Professor of Medicine and Pediatrics
Director, CATALYST Clinic
Boston University School of Medicine/Boston Medical Center
Boston, MA
MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings?
Response: Urine drug testing is a routine part of the management of primary care patients with opioid use disorder treated with medications such as buprenorphine. In addition, most providers also ask patients about recent drug use.
The point of this study was to see the agreement between the urine drug testing and what patients told a nurse and whether that changed the longer a patient was in treatment. We found that truthful disclosure of opioid and cocaine use increased with time in treatment and that urine drug tests are a useful tool to monitor patients.
18 Dec Preventing Opioid Relapse: Cost-Effectiveness of Buprenorphine–Naloxone vs Extended-Release Naltrexone
The economic value of extended-release naltrexone, compared to buprenorphine-naloxone, became more attractive after accounting for additional costs to society ...
04 Dec Marked Increase in Infected Heart Valves Due to Injected Opioids
MedicalResearch.com Interview with: [caption id="attachment_46294" align="alignleft" width="200"] Dr. Schranz[/caption]
Asher Schranz, MD
Division of Infectious Disease
Department of Medicine
UNC School of Medicine
MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study?
Response: The opioid crisis has led to several major infectious diseases concerns, including HIV and Hepatitis C.
Drug use-associated infective endocarditis (DUA-IE) is a less commonly discussed consequence of the opioid epidemic. DUA-IE is an infection of one or more heart valves that occurs from injecting drugs. It can be a severe, life-threatening infection and requires a long course of intravenous antibiotics as well as, in some cases, open heart surgery to replace an infected heart valve. Several studies over the past few years have shown that DUA-IE has been increasing.
Our study examined hospital discharges in North Carolina statewide from 2007 to 2017. We sought to update trends in DUA-IE and describe how much heart valve surgery was being performed for DUA-IE. We also aimed to report the demographics of persons who are undergoing heart valve surgery for DUA-IE and the charges, lengths of stay and outcomes of these hospitalizations.
03 Dec Wisdom Teeth Extractions Can Lead to Opioid Addiction in Adolescents and Young Adults
MedicalResearch.com Interview with: [caption id="attachment_46275" align="alignleft" width="200"] Dr. Schroeder[/caption]
Alan Schroeder MD
Associate Chief for Research
Division of pediatric hospital medicine
Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital Stanford
MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings?
Response: Third molar “wisdom teeth” extractions are one of the most common surgeries performed in adolescents and young adults, but an adequate appraisal of risks and benefits is lacking. Most patients who undergo this procedure are exposed to opioids post-operatively.
We demonstrate that, for privately-insured opioid-naïve patients 16-25 years of age, exposure to opioids from a dental provider is associated with persistent use at 90-365 days in 7% of patients and a subsequent diagnosis relating to abuse in 6% of patients. In contrast persistent use and abuse were significantly lower in control patients not exposed to dental opioids (0.1% and 0.4%, respectively). The median number of pills dispensed for the initial prescriptions was 20.
02 Dec Amphetamine Use Even Higher than Opioids Among Rural Pregnant Women
MedicalResearch.com Interview with: [caption id="attachment_46230" align="alignleft" width="200"] Dr. Admon[/caption]
Lindsay Admon, MD MSc
Assistant Professor, Department of Obstetrics & Gynecology
Institute for Healthcare Policy and Innovation
University of Michigan
MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings?
In our previous work (https://journals.lww.com/greenjournal/Fulltext/2017/12000/Disparities_in_Chronic_Conditions_Among_Women.19.aspx), we identified higher rates of deliveries complicated by substance use among rural women. We knew that some of this difference would be accounted for by opioids.What we didn’t expect was that when we took a closer look, amphetamine use disorder accounted for a significant portion of this disparity as well.
The main findings of this study are that, between 2008-09 and 2014-15, amphetamine and opioid use among delivering women increased disproportionately across rural compared to urban counties in three of four census regions. By 2014-15, amphetamine use disorder was identified among approximately 1% of all deliveries in the rural western United States, which was higher than the incidence of opioid use in most regions.
Compared to opioid-related deliveries, amphetamine-related deliveries were associated with higher incidence of the majority of adverse gestational outcomes that we examined including pre-eclampsia, preterm delivery, and severe maternal morbidity and mortality.
15 Nov More Pharmacies Willing To Dispense Naloxone Without Prescription
MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Kirk Evoy, PharmD, BCACP, BC-ADM, CTTSClinical Assistant Professor
College of Pharmacy, The University of Texas at Austin
Adjoint Assistant Professor
School of Medicine, University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio
Ambulatory Care Pharmacist
Southeast Clinic, University Health System
UT Health Science Center at San Antonio
Pharmacotherapy Education and Research Center
San Antonio, TX 78229
MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings?
Response: Previous studies in Indiana and New York City, and the similar study in California published alongside ours identified that, despite the fact that laws designed to increase naloxone access had been in place for 2-3 years, patients were still not able to obtain naloxone without first seeing a doctor in many pharmacies.
Our study showed contrasting results to the previous studies, with a much higher proportion of pharmacies stocking naloxone and stating their willingness to dispense without an outside prescription. Among the 2,317 Texas chain community pharmacies we contacted, 83.7% correctly informed our interviewers that they could obtain naloxone without having to get a prescription from their doctor before coming to the pharmacy. We also found that 76.4% of the pharmacies had at least one type of naloxone currently in stock.
14 Nov Not All Pharmacies Have Naloxone for Opioid Overdose in Stock
MedicalResearch.com Interview with: [caption id="attachment_45915" align="alignleft" width="152"] Dr. Puzantian[/caption]
Talia Puzantian, PharmD, BCPP
Associate Professor of Clinical Sciences,
School of Pharmacy and Health Sciences
Keck Graduate Institute
MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study?
Response: Naloxone has been used in hospitals and emergency rooms since the early 1970s. Distribution to laypersons began in the mid-1990s with harm reduction programs such as clean needle exchange programs providing it, along with education, to mostly heroin users. In the years between 1996-2014, 152,000 naloxone kits were distributed in this way with more than 26,000 overdoses reversed (https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/mm6423a2.htm).
We have data showing that counties in which there was greater naloxone distribution among laypeople, there were lower opioid death rates (Walley AY et al BMJ 2013). However, not all opioid users at risk for overdose will interface with harm reduction programs, particularly prescription opioid users, hence more recent efforts to increase access to laypersons through pharmacists. Naloxone access laws have been enacted in all 50 states but very little has been published about how they’ve been adopted by pharmacists thus far. One small study (264 pharmacies) from Indiana (Meyerson BE et al Drug Alcohol Depend 2018) showed that 58.1% of pharmacies stocked naloxone, only 23.6% provided it without prescription, and that large chain pharmacies were more likely to do so.
14 Nov US Tops Opioids Deaths Among 13 High Income Countries
MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
Yingxi (Cimo) Chen, MD, MPH, PhD
Postdoctoral Fellow
Radiation Epidemiology Branch, DCEG, NCI, NIH
Rockville MD 20850
MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study?
Response: Death rates from drug overdose have more than doubled in the US in the 21st century. Similar increases in drug overdose deaths have been reported in other high-income countries but few studies have compared rates across countries.
07 Nov Most Surgical Patients Only Use About 25% Of Their Prescribed Opioids
MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Joceline Vu, MD Resident, PGY-5 Department of Surgery University of Michigan MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings? Response: This study examined how much opioid patients use after surgery, and looked at factors that might predispose some patients to use more or less. Patient opioid use after surgery is an interesting question that’s gained a lot of attention recently, because it’s different from other uses for opioids. If you have chronic pain, you’re probably going to use all of your prescription. But if you have surgery, you may not take all of your pills, and this leaves people with leftover pills that can be dangerous later. From this study, we found that patients only use, on average, about quarter of their prescription, meaning that a lot of them are left with leftover pills. Moreover, we found that the biggest determinant of how much they used wasn’t how much pain they reported, or any other factor—it was how big their original prescription was. What this means is that opioid use after surgery isn’t just determined by pain, but also by what surgeons prescribe. It’s important to keep this in mind as we try to reduce unnecessary opioid prescribing after surgical procedures.07 Nov States Vary in Parental Opioid Use and Child Removal Rates
MedicalResearch.com Interview with: [caption id="attachment_45758" align="alignleft" width="157"]
Dr. Quast[/caption]
Troy Quast, PhD
Associate Professor in the University
South Florida College of Public Healt
MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings?
Response: One of the cited repercussions of the opioid epidemic is its effect on families. However, there is considerable variation in opioid misuse across the county. This is the first nation-wide study to investigate the relationship between opioid prescription rates and child removals at the state level.
I found that there are significant differences across states in the relationship between opioid prescription and child removal rates associated with parental substance abuse. In twenty-three states, increases in opioid prescription rates were associated with increases in the child removal rate. For instance, in California a 10% increase in the county average prescription rate was associated with a 28% increase in the child removal rate. By contrast, in fifteen states the association was flipped, where increases in the opioid prescription rate were associated with decreases in the child removal rate. There was no statistically significant relationship in the remaining states.
26 Oct The US Opioid Crisis is Expanding and Worse Among Young People
MedicalResearch.com Interview with:Joshua Barocas, MD
Assistant Professor of Medicine
Section of Infectious Diseases
Boston Medical Center / Boston University School of Medicine
MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings?
Response: Massachusetts has been particularly hard hit by the opioid epidemic despite lower opioid prescribing rates, near universal health insurance, and availability of opioid treatment. That said, it is difficult to estimate the population with or at-risk for opioid use disorder. It is generally a highly stigmatized disease and typical methods to estimate of opioid use disorder relay on contact with the healthcare system and/or patient reporting.
We used a unique and powerful methodology coupled with a first-in-the-nation linked database in Massachusetts to obtain both an accurate count of people with opioid use disorder who are known to the healthcare system and estimate the number who are out there but not yet known to the system.
We found that more than 275,000 people – or 4.6 percent of people over the age of 11 in Massachusetts– have opioid use disorder, a figure nearly four times higher than previous estimates based on national data. In 2011 and 2012, the prevalence of opioid use disorder in Massachusetts for those over the age of 11 was 2.72 percent and 2.87 percent, respectively. That increased to 3.87 percent in 2013, and even more, to 4.6 percent in 2015. Those between the ages of 11 and 25 experienced the greatest increase in prevalence of all age groups. The number of “known” persons increased throughout the study period – from 63,989 in 2011 to 75,431 in 2012, and 93,878 in 2013 to 119,160 in 2015.
05 Oct Fentanyl Strips Can Prevent Opioid Overdoses
MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
Jon Zibbell, PhD,
Senior public health scientist
Behavioral Health Research Division
RTI International
Research Triangle Park, NC,
MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings?
Response: For the first time in 2016, U.S. overdose deaths involving illicitly-manufactured fentanyl surpassed deaths from heroin and prescription deaths.
Fentanyl is an extremely potent synthetic opioid, and an illicitly-manufactured form of the drug is regularly being mixed with heroin and often sold to unwitting consumers. Fentanyl is 50 times more potent than heroin and its illicitly-manufactured version is extremely difficult to discern when mixed with heroin. Harm reduction organizations have started to distribute FTS and people consuming street-purchased opioids are using them to test drugs for fentanyl. Our objective was to assess whether this point-of-use form of drug checking was influencing people’s drug use behavior. The study was self-funded by the research institute RTI International.
Our findings show that consumers who tested street opioids with fentanyl test strips were five times more likely to engage in safer drug use behavior when the test comes back positive. The study was conducted among a group of 125 people who inject drugs in Greensboro, North Carolina.
14 Sep Who Is Most Vulnerable To Opioid Prescription Use?
MedicalResearch.com Interview with: [caption id="attachment_44495" align="alignleft" width="133"]
Dr. GROL-PROKOPCZYK[/caption]
Hanna Grol-Prokopczyk PhD
Assistant Professor, Department of Sociology
University at Buffalo, SUNY
MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study?
Response: Studies examining predictors of prescription opioid use often have limited information about users’ socioeconomic status, their level of pain, and their opinions of opioids. Using unique data from the Health and Retirement Study’s 2005-2006 Prescription Drug Study—which includes information about older adults’ education, income, wealth, insurance type, pain level, and opinions of prescription drugs used—I was able to explore how socioeconomic factors shaped prescription opioid use in the 2000s, when U.S. opioid use was at its peak. I was also able to present a snapshot of how users of prescription opioids felt about these drugs before the declaration of an opioid epidemic.
09 Sep Surgeons Likely Overprescribing Opioids After Rhinoplasty
MedicalResearch.com Interview with: [caption id="attachment_44355" align="alignleft" width="133"]
Dr. Shaye[/caption]
David A. Shaye, M.D., FACS
Instructor in Otolaryngology
Harvard Medical School
MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings?
Response: Cosmetic and functional rhinoplasty (nasal surgery) is the most common procedure we perform and traditionally post operative pain medication includes opioids.
In light of the recent opioid epidemic, we wished to investigate if patients pain was being treated over-treated by surgeons.
Of 173 Rhinoplasties that we performed, the majority of patients received post operative opioid tablets (an average of 28 tablets). However 11% of patients did not fill these prescriptions at all, and only 2 of the 178 patients required refills.
We believe patients experienced less pain than surgeons anticipated.
29 Aug Opioid Prescriptions Drop After 2016 CDC Guidelines Released
MedicalResearch.com Interview with: [caption id="attachment_32722" align="alignleft" width="200"]
Dr. Gery Guy[/caption]
Gery P. Guy Jr., PhD, MPH
Senior Health Economist
Division of Unintentional Injury
CDC
MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study?
Response: In response to the increasing harms and adverse outcomes from prescription opioids, the CDC released the Guideline for Prescribing Opioids for Chronic Pain in March 2016. The CDC Guideline recommends evidence-based practices for opioid use for patients age 18 years and older in primary care settings in treating chronic pain outside of active cancer treatment, palliative care, and end-of-life care.
This report analyzed the temporal changes in opioid prescribing following the release of the CDC Guideline.
21 Aug Illicit Drug Use Spikes During Special Events
MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
Bikram Subedi, PhD
Assistant Professor of Analytical Chemistry
Murray State University, Murray KY
MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings?
Response: The USA is one of the major consumers of diverse neuropsychiatric and illegal drugs, and recently declared a national public health emergency on opioid abuse. Law enforcement typically utilized conventional methods of determining drug consumption rate which are based on survey questionnaire, hospital admissions, drug-related crime statistics, and self-reported information. Conventional methods typically underestimate the actual consumption rate of drugs.
Our new approach of determining consumption rates of drugs in community is time and cost effecting and comprehensive. Based on levels of drugs quantified from raw sewage, the per capita consumption rates of several illicit drugs including methamphetamine, amphetamine, cocaine, and THC in two communities of Western Kentucky (similar population and only ~50 miles apart) were significantly different. During special events such as July 4th and 2017 solar eclipse, the consumption rates were found even higher. The consumption rate of methamphetamine was among one of the highest ever reported in the country.
21 Aug Pregabalin Linked To Increased Risk for Opioid-Related Deaths
MedicalResearch.com Interview with: [caption id="attachment_29503" align="alignleft" width="200"] Tara Gomes[/caption]
Tara Gomes, MHSc
Li Ka Shing Knowledge Institute, St Michael’s Hospital,
The Institute for Clinical Evaluative Sciences
Leslie Dan Faculty of Pharmacy
Department of Health Policy, Management, and Evaluation
University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study?
Response: Pregabalin is a medication increasingly being prescribed to manage pain, however there is emerging evidence that this drug may increase one's risk of opioid overdose when prescribed with opioids.
14 Aug Veterinarians Fear Humans May Divert Opioids Intended for Pets
Posted at 19:42h
in Author Interviews
MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
Derek S. Mason, MPH
Colorado University School of Medicine
MD Candidate, Class of 2022
Anschutz Medical Campus, Aurora, CO
MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings?
Response: The background for this report stems from a focus group of veterinarians that was held and identified that opioid diversion could be occurring within clinics.
After this, we became concerned that human patients were indeed diverting opioids for abuse and misuse and we wanted to get a broader sense from the veterinary medical community if they had been aware of opioid diversion happening within their clinics.
Additionally, we noticed that there was a gap in the scientific literature on how the veterinary medical community feels about the opioid epidemic. As prescribers of opioids, we felt that their input was highly valuable and should be included in the discussion on how to prevent opioid abuse and misuse.
09 Aug Wisdom Tooth Extraction Can Lead To Persistent Opioid Use
MedicalResearch.com Interview with: [caption id="attachment_43721" align="alignleft" width="144"]
Dr. Harbaugh[/caption]
Calista Harbaugh, MD
House Officer, General Surgery
Clinician Scholar, National Clinician Scholars Program
Research Fellow, Michigan Opioid Prescribing Engagement Network
University of Michigan
MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings?
Response: Wisdom tooth extractions is one of the most common procedures among teens and young adults, with more than 3.5 million young people having wisdom teeth pulled every year.
This procedure is commonly paired with a prescription for opioid pain medication. As the opioid epidemic sweeps the nation, we must pay attention to the long term effects of opioid prescribing for even routine procedures. This is particularly important for wisdom tooth extraction where there is evidence that opioid pain medications may be no more effective than anti-inflammatories alone.
Using commercial insurance claims, we evaluated the association between receiving an opioid prescription with wisdom tooth extraction and developing new persistent opioid use in the year after the procedure. We found nearly a 3-fold increase in odds of persistent opioid use, attributable to whether or not an opioid was prescribed. This translates to nearly 50,000 young people developing new persistent opioid use each year from routine opioid prescribing for wisdom tooth extraction.
06 Aug LUCEMYRA (Lofexidine) Now Available to Reduce Opioid Withdrawal Symptoms
MedicalResearch.com Interview with: [caption id="attachment_43749" align="alignleft" width="200"] Dr. Mark Pirner[/caption]
Mark Pirner, MD, PhD
Senior Medical Director
Clinical Research and Medical Affairs
US WorldMeds
MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this announcement? How does lofexidine differ from other opioid withdrawal medications?
Response: LUCEMYRA™ (lofexidine) was FDA-approved on May 16 as the first and only non-opioid, non-addictive medication for the management of opioid withdrawal in adults.
LUCEMYRA mitigates the acute and painful symptoms of opioid withdrawal by suppressing the neurochemical surge in the brain that occurs when opioids are abruptly discontinued.
In clinical studies, patients receiving treatment with LUCEMYRA experienced greater symptom relief and were significantly more likely to complete their withdrawal. LUCEMYRA is not an opioid drug and is not a treatment for opioid use disorder; it should be used as part of a longer-term treatment plan.
23 Jul Ketamine vs Opioids for Acute Pain in the Emergency Department
MedicalResearch.com Interview with: [caption id="attachment_43379" align="alignleft" width="120"] Dr. Schwarz[/caption]
Evan Schwarz, MD FACEP, FACMT
Associate Professor of Emergency Medicine
Medical Toxicology Fellowship Director
Section Chief Medical Toxicology
Advisory Dean in the Office of Student Affairs
Division of Emergency Medicine
Washington University School of Medicine
MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings?
Response: Ketamine is being increasingly used in the emergency department (ED) for a variety of conditions, including as an analgesic. While its usage continues to increase, there are limited studies evaluating ketamine as an analgesic in the emergency department.
Most of the studies evaluating ketamine utilized it as an adjunct to an opioid, however, multiple recommendations on blogs and other websites recommend ketamine as a single agent. The purpose of the meta-analysis was to compare the analgesic effect of ketamine compared to an opioid in adult patients presenting with acute pain to the ED.
In this study, we found that ketamine was non-inferior to opioids. We also found that the number of severe adverse events to be similar between both groups.
22 Jul Opioid Prescription Rates Higher in South, Appalachia and Rural West
The main findings are high prescribing rate districts are concentrated in the South, Appalachia and the rural West. Low-rate districts are concentrated in urban centers....
09 Jul Criminal Justice System Involvement High Among Those With Opioid Use Disorder
MedicalResearch.com Interview with: [caption id="attachment_42968" align="alignleft" width="133"] Dr. Winkelman[/caption]
Tyler Winkelman MD, MSc
Clinician-Investigator
Division of General Internal Medicine, Hennepin Healthcare
Center for Patient and Provider Experience, Hennepin Healthcare Research Institute
Assistant Professor
Departments of Medicine & Pediatrics
University of Minnesota
MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study?
Response: Opioid overdose deaths continue to escalate, and there have been reports that jails and prisons are bearing the brunt of the opioid epidemic. However, it wasn’t known, nationally, how many people who use opioids were involved in the criminal justice system. We also didn’t have recent estimates of common physical and mental health conditions among people with different levels of opioid use.
We used two years of national survey data to understand these associations, which are critical in developing a public health response to the opioid epidemic.
30 Jun Surgery For Spondylolisthesis (Spinal Stress Fractures) Reduced Chances of Opioid Dependence
MedicalResearch.com Interview with: [caption id="attachment_42890" align="alignleft" width="199"] Dr. Ugiliweneza[/caption] Beatrice Ugiliweneza, PhD, MSPH Assistant Professor Kentucky Spinal Cord Injury Research Center Department of Neurosurgery, School of Medicine Department of Health Management and Systems Science School of Public Health and Information Sciences University of Louisville MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings? Response: This study...
27 Jun Potentially 70,000 Opioid-Related Overdose Deaths Undercounted
MedicalResearch.com Interview with: [caption id="attachment_42801" align="alignleft" width="200"] Dr. Buchanich[/caption]
Jeanine M. Buchanich, Ph.D.
Research associate
Professor in the University of Pittsburgh Graduate
School of Public Health’s Department of Biostatistics
MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings?
Response: In the U.S., cause of death codes are assigned by the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) using information reported by the coroner or medical examiner completing the death certificate. Drug-specific overdose deaths are identified by the contributory causes of death, which are categorized as “T codes” and are assigned based on the specific drugs recorded by the coroner or medical examiner completing the death certificate. A code of T50.9 means “other and unspecified drugs, medicaments and biological substances.”
My colleagues and I extracted death data by state for 1999 through 2015 from the NCHS’s Mortality Multiple Cause Micro-data Files. We grouped overdose deaths into opioid-related, non-opioid-related and unspecified codes. In five states – Alabama, Indiana, Louisiana, Mississippi and Pennsylvania – more than 35 percent of the overdose deaths were coded as unspecified.
We then calculated the change in percentage of overdose deaths that fell into each category from 1999 to 2015 by state. In those 17 years, opioid-related overdose deaths rose 401 percent, non-opioid-related overdose deaths rose 150 percent and unspecified overdose deaths rose 220 percent.
This allowed us to extrapolate how many of the unspecified overdose deaths were likely opioid-related. By our calculations, potentially 70,000 opioid-related overdose deaths were not included in national opioid-related mortality estimates since 1999 because coroners and medical examiners did not specify the drug that contributed to the cause of death when completing the death certificates.
27 Jun Buprenorphine Exposures Among Children and Adolescents
MedicalResearch.com Interview with: [caption id="attachment_34914" align="alignleft" width="145"] Dr. Smith[/caption]
Gary A. Smith, MD, DrPH
Director, Center for Injury Research and Policy
Nationwide Children’s Hospital
Columbus, OH
MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study?
Response: Buprenorphine is a prescription opioid medication commonly used to treat opioid use disorder. From 2005 to 2010, the annual number of individual patients who received a buprenorphine prescription increased from 100,000 to more than 800,000. Although buprenorphine is important for the treatment of opioid use disorder, pediatric exposure to this medication can result in serious adverse outcomes.
26 Jun More Medicaid Enrollees Receiving Treatment for Opioid Use Disorder, But Disparities Remain
MedicalResearch.com Interview with: [caption id="attachment_42751" align="alignleft" width="130"] Dr. Stein[/caption]
Bradley D. Stein MD PhD
Senior Physician Policy Researcher
Pittsburgh Office
Rand Corporation
MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study?
Response: Increasing use of medication treatment for individuals with opioid use disorders, with medications like methadone and buprenorphine, is a critical piece of the nation’s response to the opioid crisis. Buprenorphine was approved by the FDA in 2002 for treatment of opioid use disorders, but there was little information about to what extent buprenrophine’s approval increased the number of Medicaid-enrollees who received medication treatment in the years following FDA approval nor to what extent receipt of such treatment was equitable across communities.
25 Jun Concurrent Opioids and Benzodiazepines Raise Risk of Overdose, esp. Early On
MedicalResearch.com Interview with: [caption id="attachment_42549" align="alignleft" width="132"] Dr. Hernandez[/caption]
Inmaculada Hernandez, PharmD, PhD
Assistant Professor of Pharmacy and Therapeutics
University of Pittsburgh School of Pharmacy
Pittsburgh, PA 15261
MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study?
Response: Prior research has found that taking opioids and benzodiazepines simultaneously increases the risk of overdose by 2 to 3 fold, when compared to opioid-use only.
However, prior to our study, it was unclear how the risk of overdose changes over time with the concurrent use of opioids and benzodiazepines.
19 Jun Most Patients Who Survive Overdose Do Not Receive FDA Approved Medications for Opioid Use Disorder
MedicalResearch.com Interview with: [caption id="attachment_42541" align="alignleft" width="184"]
Dr. Larochelle[/caption]
Marc R. Larochelle, MD, MPH
Assistant Professor of Medicine
Boston University School of Medicine
Boston MD
MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings?
Response: In this study we examined more than 17,000 individuals who survived an opioid overdose in Massachusetts between 2012 and 2014.
We were interested in identifying how many went on to receive one of the three FDA-approved medications for opioid use disorder (MOUD), and whether or not they were associated with mortality.
We found that only 3 in 10 received MOUD and that receipt of buprenorphine and methadone were associated with 40-60% reduction in all-cause and opioid-related mortality.
We found no association between naltrexone and mortality though the confidence of this conclusion is limited by the small number who received naltrexone in this cohort.